A Christian Viewpoint

title: Fall of Giants
author: Ken Follet
publisher: Dutton

I have been reading Ken Follet’s works since the early eighties. The first book was “The Eye of the Needle” read out loud while I and a friend drove down to Florida for a golfing vacation. I was hooked and reeled in by his writing style. A behind the scenes look at history (fictional and almost ((ahem)) plausible). So picking up “Fall of Giants” to read was a given.

The first thing that should be noted is that it is book one of a trilogy. I don’t think book two has been written yet. The trilogy will cover a time span of perhaps a hundred years. Book one starts with the brief prologue of Billy, a Welsh miner to be and his initiation into the coal industry. This prologue is a short story in itself. Then the main story begins. It covers the period from January 1914 to January 1924. Honestly? The book is about the First World War: what lead up to it, the war itself and the aftermath.

It is a story about the triumphs and the tribulations of “Class Warfare.” A Welsh coal mining family with the main characters Billy and Ethel, brother and sister. The Earl of Aberowen and family, the Earl and his Russian wife (a princess). Then a German Aristocratic family… A Russian Workers Family… An American “Nouveau Riche” Family… You see the World War through their eyes. Yes, that means a lot of story jumps from one family to another, one character to another. Besides being a book with three parts: before, during and after the war; the story breaks down into dates where the action takes place and mini stories within those dates about one or more of the families and what they did. If you are a bunny rabbit you will be able to keep up with all of the hoping around. If not…

If you never studied this period of history this book will be a good primer for understanding that time period. Not the historical events as they unfolded but the mind-set of that moment in history. It is only a hundred years in the past but baby, you have come a long way. In other ways we haven’t changed at all. I like history when it is revealed through story and not dry facts. This story is entertaining and educational. Though a bit long I got through it rather quickly… for me. I do recommend reading the book. However, be forewarned that some of the scenes are sexual in nature. If you are easily offended or aroused, ignore the book and read something more wholesome.

Linda is always looking to expand my reading list. I was brought up in a French Canadian family and the reading of Charles Dickens’ works never came up. That doesn’t mean I never heard of him or that I am not familiar with his stories. My first exposure to the classics was through the colour comics. Classic Comics put out many of the stories written by Dickens. Eventually my dad bought a brand new black and white television and we watched some of the older films such as “Scrooge”, “A Tale of Two Cities” and others. I thought the English were quite a strange group of people. So as a kid, comics and television were my first introduction to the works of Charles Dickens. Peculiar that I never read anything of his while attending an English High-school for four years. So comics, movies and more movies with different versions and a musical or two thrown in was my exposure.

Oprah’s List? Linda saw a book containing two works by Charles Dickens. She found it at Chapters on the Oprah’s List discount table. Wow, what a deal. And approved by Oprah! Can’t get any better reference than that. Of course I am thinking that if it was only a book containing one work by Dickens, perhaps it wouldn’t have made it to “The List.” So she bought me the book and it was a delight reading the two stories.

A Tale of Two Cities… I thought I knew the story, read the comic and saw the movie. It was a grand tale of characters who were English and French. I thought the English were strange! In the novel the French didn’t take a back seat to strangeness. The tale of these people and the struggles they faced in London and Paris of the 1700’s was educational.

I still shake my my head when I reflect on the story. It begins with the famous line, “It was the best of time, it was the worst of times”. Very familiar words. It ends with “It is a far, far better thing I do…” Great lines but the story seemed to be a mystery to me. Nothing else seemed familiar.

What I found strange is the way it is laid out. I thought I was watching a serial rather than one continuous story. Like watching “Flash Gordon” or “The Rocket Man” at the movie theater. Later I found that this story was a series in a magazine… so I guess my impression was right.

The other story in the book was “Great Expectations”. Again, I thought I knew the story but was far off the mark. Only in a few places did I remember a scene. The story of a young man living a strange life. I won’t get into any details… just pick it up and read it for yourself.

Both stories were good. I told Linda I can hardly wait to see the old movies once again to see how different the written tales are to the film versions. I don’t know if you can still get this book at Chapters. Linda bought it at Christmas time at a discount. What I do recommend is that you get a copy of the stories and read them for yourself. I do not think you will be disappointed.

In the Center of the Storm / My Years at the CIA
by George Tenet w/ Bill Harlow
publisher: Harper Collins

This book will be of interest to those who want an understanding of how the intelligence services of the United States government operate. Specifically under the leadership of George Tenet He was the leader of the CIA at the tail end of the Clinton Administration as well as at the beginning of the Bush administration. The book is broken down into several different sections. The first is the early years when he took the position of Deputy CIA chief. He then takes on the mantle of CIA chief and is responsible for the co-ordination all of the intelligence gathering for the United States government.

His first actions as chief of the CIA is the war on terror. This war on terror began earlier then the events of 9/11. Al Qaeda, then and now, are the central players that George Tenet was involved with bringing to justice. He also showed what the CIA could do against the Taliban in Afghanistan if given the resources to handle the problem. The opening of the war was very quick and very efficient. In a matter of months they overthrew the Taliban government and set up Karzai as the leader of the interim government.

Not all of the actions of the CIA were efficient. That became very evident during the war in Iraq. There the CIA was hamstrung by the DOD and the State Department and they could not fully implement the measures they wanted. Sadly it became a dark comedy of errors. In tandem with this was the search for weapons of mass destruction. The search for these weapons was not done diligently. Personally, I believe that some of these weapons are still located somewhere in the deserts of Iraq, but will probably never be found seeing that the governments that are taking part in the search were not willing to take whatever efforts were necessary to resolve the problem.

I found George’s book to be of some value in understanding the background of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. It was a somewhat interesting read. The many pictures that were included in the book were rather mundane and do not add to the value of the book itself. On a scale of four stars being the best I give this book two stars. For entertainment purposes this book has no value. For historical purposes, it has some value, but as with all autobiographies, what is written needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Side note: I have just installed my “Dragon NaturallySpeaking” version 11 and set it up to operate on my computer. It is a word recognition program that changes what you speak into words on the page. This is the first thing I have dictated with it. Not bad, and it is a far improvement over version 6 that I had eight years ago. On a scale of four stars being the best I would, at this time, give the product a rating of three stars.